


Long Distance

by harmonyfb



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 14:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2550581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harmonyfb/pseuds/harmonyfb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-<i>Chosen</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Distance

The phone was still ringing. She knew the others had to hear it, they knew she was trying to study. Why was she the only one who ever did anything around here?

"Don't worry, I'll get it," she shouted sarcastically. There was not the merest peep from the rest of the apartment. Potentials or Slayers, it didn't matter; they were all the laziest people on the face of the earth.

She snatched up the phone, and snapped out her excuse for a greeting. "What?"

For a moment, there was silence, just the crackling of long-distance lines.

"Helllooooo?" Buffy must have forgotten to lock her cellphone keys again.

"Dawn?" The voice was faint, a whisper over the receiver, but it was unmistakeable. _Spike_.

She almost dropped the phone, her fingers limp and trembling. "Spike?" Oh. _Dreaming_. She was having that dream again. The one where everybody who died came back, and they were happy and normal again. Well, as normal as it could be with Spike and Anya around.

Except that she wasn't dreaming. She was awake, and things weren't perfect, and they were still stuck in that crappy apartment in a country where you didn't see the sun for months at a time. When she pinched herself, it hurt.

She did drop the phone, then, and went scrambling for it, pulled the handset down to the floor, because her knees were suddenly wobbly, too. She could hear his faraway voice, still talking, talking, talking. Something about an amulet, Angel, a law office - she couldn't make sense of most of it.

She finally managed to stammer, "Oh, god, you're not dead? We left you and you weren't - you didn't..."

"Well, that's the thing, Bit. I was. Am. Bit more than usual. Been trying to tell you. I wanted to make sure everyone was all right there, now that I can handle a phone again."

_Buffy_. Of course. That's who he really called for. She wiped her eyes, leaving wet tracks across her sleeve. She should have known. "She's not here," she said flatly.

"Who? Oh, Buffy. Yeah, I know. Heard she was somewhere in Austria this week. I didn't call for her, pet. Called to talk to you."

She frowned. "Me? Why?"

There was a pause, an indrawn breath. "Missed you."

She closed her eyes and let the tears slip past. "I missed you, too."


End file.
